False Reports
Nicole Ortiz
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Abstract
False reports are inaccurate accusations of an individual committing criminal activity, mostly done towards people of color. False reports and lack of effort within police officers are leading to unlawful arrests and multiple other issues. False reports are not taken as serious and are not handled properly, they are hidden as much as possible, leading to an incredibly high amount of wrongful incarceration. The key is to dive deep into the roots of injustice in our justice system and bring light to the wrongs, finding a way to better the wrongs.
A false report and a regular report are reports that are verbal or written statements to describe something someone has observed, previously done or overheard in a different conversation, in a false report the statement/information given is incorrect hence ‘false” reports. Although all reports are important one has became widely popular around the world, false reports and following behind it is police reports. There as been one too many situations in which citizens reports came up as false, due to racism and the lack of consequences for these false reports. With all in my mind, I ask why are reports held to such an extent in which one can get arrested on that alone?
Police reports as previously stated are reports made by a citizen or police officers to document crimes and provide useful information for any future police investigations. Reports can include things like the date, the time, the location of the incident and the officers opinion on who caused the incident regardless of evidence. These reports become very useful with how “slow” our criminal justice system is, these reports have the ability to last in the test of time and can be the cause of someone’s prosecution. Police reports can and are known to lead to and arrest, regardless if you committed the crime or not.
Regardless of where you live police reports come in varieties but all have one purpose, to document an individual’s criminal history. The most well known report would have to be an arrest report. An arrest report is a written document splits into five parts, an incident area, reporting party area, victim area, alleged criminal area and narrative area; the arrest report specifies and somewhat proves the events that lead up to an immediate arrest and are widely done to protect law enforcement during interactions with the public in a way that “deprives them of their freedom”. Many officers read their reports over and over again, making sure they’re giving strong details, while other officers may fill in the bare minimum and move on, causing a lack in information. As you may know when you are arrested you are now in police custody, you are no longer free to roam, anything you say can and will be used against you; To many, their reactions towards their freedom being deprived may not go well at all, leading to police officers to take more serious measures when arresting this individual.
Crime reports are not updated and fully completed by police officers, police officers only start the crime report, they give the basic details and information attached to your name and regular identification like your hair color, eye color…etc and they give it to the FBI; The FBI then goes and compiles official data and reports made by information that was given to them.
Another well known report is an incident report, this report is towards incidents like a traffic accident, a missing child or somebody playing their music too loudly. Incident reports are more than likely to not result in an arrest but a warning and further steps to prevent the incident from occurring again.
When police officers are making reports there is a procedure they must follow. The police must investigate the report, after the report the public prosecutor office now becomes in charge of the case and decides whether or not there is enough evidence to bring charges upon the individual involved. The prosecutor is in charge of bringing that case to court and conducting the actual trial, the accused will be allowed to provide evidence to prove their innocence. The judge will decide if further evidence is needed to prove innocence/guilt then follows up with a verdict. Although police officer have certain guidelines to follow on how to handle police reports correctly this is not the case. Many police officers were quick to arrest innocent people who were accused or showed no effort in their reports, as previously stated many officers don’t provide enough information or content on their reports leading to lack of information and quality of the report.
False reports is becoming a common thing, especially against people of color. As previously stated, false reports are reports of false criminal activity against an individual. False reports are usually done with motives of receiving attention, profit and a lot of times revenge. These false reports are made against people of color, assuming they are up to no good. Filing a false report knowingly has its consequences, you will be charged with a false report and or false statement as they say. Police officers have a duty of investigating these reports and with the lack of effort in doing so, it is leading to a decline in justice for our people of colored and causing a horrible impact on communities. Some clues in properly investigating a false report for what it is would be …lack of evidence, inconsistent statements, circumstances don’t seem plausible and unrealistic descriptions. Unfortunately statistics for the amount of reports that were proven to be false is not available, there are no articles, no evidence and no proof of the amount of false reports made throughout the years and yet it did not come as a surprise. The United States and New York overall is well known for hiding their injustice, their mistakes, and covering up their tracks in any situation that will ruin their reputation.
Following false reports, their doesn’t seem to be enough consequences for those who make them. An individual accused of filing a false report usually never goes to jail, the most they receive is a charge or fee; These consequences do not compare to what the accused has to deal with, especially if jail time was served before the false allegations were revealed. Many individuals especially of colored are often reported for non criminal activity and before an investigation is done thoroughly they are arrested and convicted of what they are being accused Of. Among being arrested, their records are publicized, making it easier for jobs and other opportunities to see what is going on. People who file false police reports should receive jail time, among other charges in regards to keeping our justice in place, too many people have walked away clean with ruining one’s life, making it harder for actual victims of these crimes to receive the help they need.
Preventing false reports is easy and the police have got the system all figured out but it’s the people in those uniforms unwilling to put effort into such a small yet important part. Investigations is a first, investigations into police reports should be taken more seriously and both sides should be hurd, the reporter is not always the victim. A next step is one I stated above, giving heavier consequences to the false reporter, especially if the accused was forced to serve time. Confirming all evidence and documentation on the report will be another huge step, it should not be that easy for one with limited evidence to accuse one of such criminal activities.
Overall false reports is a problem that is arising quickly and not enough attention is being brought towards it. False reports have become a standing ground for unlawful arrests and false accusations, how police are so quick to accuse and arrest the accused without taking the proper steps they are trained to take. False reports should be written down, documented, published and be publicized for the world to see, so we can understand what our next steps as a community is to do better. And the question of “why these reports are held to such an extent in which one can get arrested on these reports alone?” continues to stand, although the answer is engraved in my work, I don’t think there is a psychological right answer, for me at least
References
. Barnes, B. M. H. D. B. A. S. (2019, October 24). The Importance of Police Reports and Why and When They Can be Sloppy. Retrieved December 15, 2019,
ch.ch. (n.d.). How can I report a criminal offence or make a criminal complaint? – www.ch.ch. Retrieved December 15, 2019, from https://www.ch.ch/en/reporting-someone-police-filing-report/
FBI.GOV. (2019, September 30). 2018 Crime Statistics Released. Retrieved December 15, 2019, from https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2018-crime-statistics-released-093019
LEB. (2017, September 26). False Allegations of Adult Crimes. Retrieved December 15, 2019, from https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/false-allegations-of-adult-crimes
Shaw, M. (2019, May 14). Filing a False Police Report. Retrieved December 15, 2019,
from https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/filing-a-false-police-report.html
US STATE RECORDS. (n.d.). What is an Arrest Report? Retrieved from https://staterecords.org/arrests/what_is_an_arrest_report
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